


Shiro to Hero (Commission)

by The_Sickfic_Sideblog



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Coughing, Fever, Gen, Season/Series 03, Season/Series 03 Spoilers, Self-Doubt, Sickfic, Spoilers, good character bonding, respiratory infection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-23 03:05:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11980764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Sickfic_Sideblog/pseuds/The_Sickfic_Sideblog
Summary: A commission piece for someone who wished to remain anonymous.After returning from captivity, Shiro finds himself questioning his position and value as a teammate.





	Shiro to Hero (Commission)

Shiro was practically given a huge welcoming party when he returned, but he wasn't exactly in the partying mood. He spent an unknown, yet certainly long time in the sharp winds of the ice planet before being subjected to depleting oxygen, food, and water. And even then, who knows what happened to him before that on the Galra ships? Tired was an absolute understatement.

But in the typical Shiro fashion, he tried to stay strong. The healing pod did some work on him, mostly on his frost-bitten fingers and lack of proper nutrients, but when he finally fell out of the pod, he simply couldn't stop coughing.

It lead to a perfect storm. A lot of the symptoms for Shiro's eventual illness lined up with those from being discharged from a pod. Body aches, fatigue, and a cough, just to name a few. But when they didn't go away within a day or so, the others began to get worried.

"Shiro, I really think you should just sit and recover for a while..." Pidge insisted, "You're still getting your ass kicked from the healing pod, or maybe it's even something else."

"Pidge is right," Keith agreed, "At most, we should let you rest for another day, then put you back on a training schedule instead of sticking you right in your Lion."

"I'll-" Shiro's breath caught, and he coughed and sputtered a few times, "I'll be fine, I gotta get back in the lion. We can't form Voltron without her."

The room went dead quiet. No one had had the heart to tell him yet, and the fever flushed on his face only made the revelation worse. Hadn’t he seen Voltron before in the escape pod? Perhaps that was the doings of the lack of oxygen. Allura was ultimately the one to break it to him.

"Shiro...we  _ can _ form Voltron."

"What do you mean? You need all the paladins for Voltron, you can't form him without the head."

Hunk chimed in to deliver the rest of the blow. "We  _ do _ have the head. Keith's been piloting the Black Lion since you were gone."

Shiro didn't think that one would hurt. But it really did. It ached more than his chest. The paladins watched as his face fell. If each lion had a distinct connection with their paladins, was it really so easy to swap? Or was this just another one of those pseudo-meaningful relationships that happened too often on Earth?

But without too much hesitation, Shiro made his pale face brighten up as his body gave a small shiver. "That's great! Maybe I should stay and rest if you guys have it all covered."

Recovery wasn't so simple. What was normally dubbed "Healing Pod Flu" turned into an actual respiratory infection. All the paladins made a ruling on that statement when Shiro started coughing up a sickly-green mucus from his lungs (and subsequently caused the Alteans to panic). But the universe, and more importantly, the Galra forces, trekked on, and Voltron was needed. So the former Black Paladin stepped aside.

"You're sure you'll be okay, Shiro?" Princess Allura asked. Despite all the paladins' warnings, Shiro followed them to the launching bay to see them off. He nodded with a watery smile and turned to sneeze into his elbow.

"I'll be fine, Princess." His voice was congested enough to make her smile a bit. "I'm more worried about you guys out there without me."

"We'll be alright. We've been working together ever since you were gone. And we'll have you on the intercom just in case."

"That makes me feel a bit better."

It didn't.

And so, time and time again as his body fought, Shiro found his spot on the floor of the deck, watching as colored dots zipped back and forth on the screens. It'd been days since he was 'diagnosed' with the respiratory infection, and things seemed to be getting worse before they got better. He could hardly keep track of his team mates without making his headache worse, but they seemed to be doing well. He only got a few moments of precious silence before Coran stepped onto the deck as well. But Coran understood the magnitude of his illness, and simply sat down quietly next to him. Eventually, Shiro spoke first.

"I'm glad they're out there and can't see me like this, Coran," he chuckled, but it didn't have much humor in it. He was their leader, it was important for them to see him as strong and dependable, not taken down by some measly respiratory infection.

Yet as the former Black Paladin watched his team mates soar through the skies and across the monitors, he felt a twinge of...something. It was a complicated feeling, a cocktail of pride and joy mixed with a bit of abandonment and some other negative feelings Shiro didn't exactly want to address. But the largest portion of that cocktail was uselessness.

The red-headed Altean watched the human's face fall, eyes that were intent on his paladins now looking to the ground. He knew that look. He knew that feeling a bit too well. With a quick dash to the kitchen, Coran brought back a steaming-hot towel. He got a nod of consent, and slipped it into the back of Shiro's robe, draping it right over his lungs.

"There you go, that should help. Take deep, slow breaths," he hummed as he sat down next to Shiro, "How's that headache that's been bothering you?"

"It's still there," Shiro sighed, "Right at the base of my skull. Seems like that's the worst of my worries, though." Though he inhaled deeply, the exhale was shaky and choppy, riddled with coughs and wheezes. He had a brief look of disgust before spitting a decent-sized wad of phlegm into a designated bowl. Coran chuckled a bit in sympathy, and the two fell into watchful silence once more.

"Coran?" the former paladin said quietly, voice getting rougher by the minute, "How did you guys do while I was gone?"

"We managed well enough," he watched Shiro's face fall again, and tried to revise his statement, "But that's just it. We  _ managed _ ."

"Looks like they're managing pretty well out there now."

The two looked up at the screen, watching Keith bark orders and the others follow them well. Allura was bonding with Blue at an exponential rate. Lance handled the Red Lion almost like a professional NASCAR driver.  _ Almost _ , Shiro thought when Lance turned a little hard and bumped into Hunk.

"They don't need me anymore."

The words had just slipped out of his mouth, he didn't think about them. He looked equally surprised as Coran did. Maybe the fever was really getting to him.

"What on Altea are you talking about?"

"Well... _ look _ at them. They've got a new Black Paladin, and they're figuring out the whole paladin shuffle pretty well. This team set up looks like it's working  _ better _ than when I was a part of it! I'm a useless part of the team now." The exertion got to Shiro's lungs again, and he hacked more mucus into the bowl.

The older man sighed, his heart strings tugged by both the words Shiro said and the way he sounded when he coughed. "Sometimes that's how the universe works, Number 1. Not everyone can be the hero. Sometimes, we need to take back seats. Or else there would be no audience for the hero to save.”

There was a deep past behind Coran's words, Shiro could feel the weight of them. He never considered Coran to feel the same level of uselessness. Yet here they both were, while their close ones were in a giant mech saving the universe.

The former Black Paladin sniffed. Whether it was from sorrow or from sickness, he didn't know. Inklings of doubt crept into his chest and mingled with the infection, both spreading at a rapid rate.

"Well, not to fret, Shiro!" Coran jumped up and proudly pointed at his chest, "You're still a hero to me! You've lead our paladins well enough to be self-sufficient, and if that isn't the test of a true leader, I'm not sure what is!"

Shiro could, in fact, find many definitions for true leaders, and that  _ may _ have not been one of them, but he still smiled at the sentiment. "Thank you, Coran. Maybe the fever is just getting to me."

"You should go rest, then. Not to worry, I'll look out for you and the other paladins while you take a few-vargas-long nap."

"That sounds...actually pretty good..."

"Right then! Chop chop, back to your bedroom chambers!" Coran helped the taller man up and quickly shooed him off to the bedroom with an extra blanket and another hot towel. Shiro gave him a brief smile before closing the door. Finally, something was starting to feel better inside of him.

And just like that, the red-headed Altean was left alone on the sidelines. Again.

  
  



End file.
